Foreign Affairs knows of 22 Dutch people stuck in Gaza; May be more, Minister says

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware of 22 Dutch people stuck in Gaza, Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said before a council of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. One more Dutch person reported to the Ministry over the weekend, she said, adding that there may be more Netherlands residents in the area who haven’t contacted Dutch officials yet.

The number excludes a 33-year-old Dutch woman who died in an explosion in Gaza on Saturday. The Ministry’s team in Ramallah spoke with Islam al-Ashqar’s family, Bruins Slot said, expressing condolences to her loved ones.

The Netherlands is trying to maintain contact with all Dutch in Gaza and working to get them out, Bruins Slot said. The government is doing this by pushing for open borders to make it possible to get humanitarian help in and Dutch people out.

Asked if there should be a cease-fire, Bruins Slot said: “It is very necessary that there will be humanitarian pauses because it is absolutely necessary that there is more humanitarian aid and the people get help, get medicine, get food, get water.”

“It’s absolutely necessary that there is more humanitarian aid. The Dutch government has also made available 10 million euros to give more humanitarian aid, at the moment, to the Palestinians because we need to take care of innocent people.”

The Minister also commiserated with the family of Ofir Engel, an 18-year-old Israeli teen abducted by Hamas and urgently granted Dutch nationality last week. She said they didn’t know his current whereabouts or condition but that the government was making all diplomatic efforts to free him.